This blog is dedicated to 'quality'. I plan to include reviews, articles, views, news, jobs, etc. on quality. I’m part of the ASQ Influential Voices program. While I receive an honorarium from ASQ for my commitment, the thoughts and opinions expressed on my blog are my own.
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Monday, December 15, 2014

I read a recent post by ASQ CEO Bill Troy with interest. It
talks about an interesting position many people take on quality – That it’s not
ambitious enough to change the world. Or something similar. Bill has shared an
article by Brooks Carder about quality not being ambitious enough. Read it here.

I find Brook’s argument interesting but a bit academic. Now I
am not a pessimist of cynic. I am often accused of being optimistic when
everything is falling apart and hoping for a yes when everyone is saying No! I
am more a realist and like seeing things done that worry about vision and
mission statements too much. Brook has picked ASQ’s mission statement as an
argument that we aren't ambitious enough.

Frankly ASQ isn't all quality is about. It wants to be and
should be but there are 1000s of quality professionals who are doing very well
but aren't associated with ASQ. When we talk of quality in general, these
professionals count. And to them and many in ASQ, I don’t think ASQ’s mission
matters – what matters is what is it doing about it. Now, I am not saying ASQ’s
mission doesn't matter. Of course it does. But I wouldn't fret on every word as
long as we take some good action on it.

So – Is quality ambitious? No. Should it be? The answer is
relative. Compared to leadership, production, and marketing, quality should be
less ambitious. But compared to human resource management and compliance it
should be more ambitious.

How do we define being ambitious? When we challenge the status-quo and reach out for much more than what most people expect us to – we are
being ambitious.

Much of quality is also ensuring sure our organizations meet
the minimum standards that they set for goods and services. I won’t want people
challenging status-quo when in inspection and quality control. Just follow the
guideline and keep the customer in mind. That’s it. Don’t be creative and
ambitious every day. I know this sounds harsh but every role has a purpose and
on most days the purpose must be followed.

The process improvement part of quality should be ambitious.
We should not settle for 10% improvement – aim for 10 fold improvement. If Bob
Galvin had not set an ambitious goal for Motorola in mid 1980s we would not
have seen Six Sigma around.

But again, very lofty and high ambition can sometimes paralyze
people. We must be able to break the problem into pieced. Cut the elephant into
sizes (apologies to my vegetarian friends). You don’t run a marathon when you
decide you will run one. You work towards and it could take many smaller goals
to finally get there.

Finally, I think its fine for Quality to be moderately
ambitious. Leadership should be ambitious about what quality can achieve. If people
in the quality team can only follow what leadership expects, I am in general
fine. Now again, I don’t mean to say that quality should not think beyond. It
should. Just not daily.

Friday, December 12, 2014

Speakers from Toyota,
ANZ, Akshaya Patra, and Mahindra Reva talk to quality professionals and MBA
students at the ASQ – Alliance University Summit on Nation Building on 29 Nov
2014

ASQ Bangalore and Alliance University successfully organized
a one day Summit on ‘Quality for Nation Building’ on 29 Nov 2015. This was the
first one day event arranged by ASQ Bangalore. The venue was the picturesque
Alliance University campus in Anekal, Bangalore. The event was attended by over
150 students and professionals.

The summit was inaugurated by Dr Madhukar Angur, Chancellor,
Alliance University. He set the stage well for the event by talking about the
importance of quality in everything we do. Dr Angur expressed keenness for ASQ
and Alliance to do more events where knowledge from industry stalwarts could be
shared with students and professionals alike. He also wished luck to the seven
student teams from five management institutes presenting later in the day.

Speakers at the event were:

V Ramesh, Senior VP, Toyota Kirloskar Motors

Pankajam Sridevi, MD, ANZ Support Service India

Muralidhar Pundla, Director, Akshaya Patra Foundation

Umesh Krishnappa, Head, Car program, Mahindra Reva

Subramaniam P G, Consultant and Chair, ASQ Chennai LMC

The inaugural lamp was lit by Dr Angur, Ciby James of ASQ
Delhi, V Ramesh or Toyota, and Pankajam Sridevi of ANZ, and Anshuman Tiwari of
ASQ Bangalore.

In his opening remarks Anshuman Tiwari, Chair – ASQ
Bangalore spoke about how ASQ Bangalore is trying to reach out to management
students and will shortly launch a student chapter initiative. He thanked the
speakers for their time and Alliance University for hosting the event.

Mr Ramesh spoke about the need and importance of quality in
nation building. He shared examples of how his organization is supporting the
cause by not only providing good quality vehicles but also developing a very
competent manufacturing workforce. This workforce, trained by Toyota, is now
working with other leading companies as well.

Ms Pankajam regaled the audience with a mix of concepts,
ideas, and anecdotes on how the ITES sector has helped shape a new economy and
working class for India. She stressed that Multinationals now come to india for
the quality we offer and not for the cost advantage we offer. With a series of
anecdotes and examples from ANZ she urged the students in the audience to give
their best in whatever they choose to do.

Mr Muralidhar was standing in for his CEO, Shridhar Venkat
who could not attend due to a last minute emergency. Murali spoke about the
focus on operational excellence at Akshaya Patra. All in the audience were
astounded to know that Akshaya Patra feeds over 14 lakh students every
afternoon and that this could cost as less as Rs 750 per child per year.

Mr Krishnappa shared the fantastic story of an Indian
innovation – Reva Electric Car. He spoke about several world-leading features
of this car including safety, on road revival, remote monitoring etc. He also
spoke about the very futuristic and green plant Mahindra has built for this car
in Bangalore. Umesh invited all present to visit the manufacturing plan to see
how India can make the world’s best here. It was interesting to note that
Mahindra Reva is ranked the world’s 22nd most innovative company.

Subramaniam P G, consultant and Chair at ASQ Chennai ended
the speakers session with a clarion call to all present to do their bit towards
nation building by – Know the rule and then follow it. He shared case studies
from police administration, sugarcane purchase office, and Aravind eye
care.

The post lunch session commenced with Mr Ciby James of ASQ
Delhi speaking about the role ASQ is trying to play in bringing Indian quality
professionals together and also how students can become part of this mission.

This session had seven student teams present their ideas
about using ‘quality’ for nation building. Participating institutes were
Xavier’s (XIME), Alliance University, Presidency College, St. Joesph, and
Ramaiah Institute. Seven teams from these five institutes presented their
ideas. In interest of fairness all teams presented under a team number and not
Institute name.

The contest was judged by:

Dhirendra Kumar Dubey, CEO, Lean Management Institute of
India

Subramaniam P G, Chair – ASQ Chennai

Manjunath Makam, LMC Memebr – ASQ Bangalore

The winners were announced by Mr Dubey and prizes were given
away by the other two judges. The winning teams were:

Winners: Sourabha K and Radhika B of Alliance Universtity

First Runners up: AShwini Jain and Sahith A N Krishna of
Alliance Universtity

Second Runners up: Sai Swetha and Anie Jacob of XIME

Many congratulations to all winners. All three teams
received a trophy and a cash prize (to be delivered later).

At the end, a vote of thanks was presented by Prof. George
Easaw.

The organizers wish to thank Minitab (Cubic Computing)
statistical software for supporting the event through part sponsoring the
delegate kits.

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

In his recent post on A View
from the Q, Bill
Troy, the new ASQ CEO, has raised a very key issue. That of engaging
members and volunteers in member based organizations such as ASQ. This is an issue which bothers ASQ a lot. Like
many member based organizations ASQ has its challenges in growing memberships. As
Chair of the Bangalore ASQ team I face this challenge on a regular basis.

Let’s examine this situation. Most of my analysis is based
on volunteering for ASQ in India.

Why do members join ASQ?

Members join mostly for the discounted certification fee
when you become a paid member.

Members want events where knowledge is shared – something they
can take back to their companies and implement

Members want networking for mentoring and career opportunities

Members want to be part of something bigger and global and
derive pride from the same

Members want to rise up in the recognition ladder – become a
Fellow, win ASQ awards etc.

Why do members not renew their membership? (Again, this is truer
for India)

Members don’t see VFM – value for money once they are
certified

Knowledge sharing isn’t enough and is often generic

Members don’t get career leads and get frustrated

While ASQ has improved its online connect with members they
still don’t feel they are part of something big and global (ASQ is still seen
as American)

ASQ’s recognition program is not very rewarding for
non-Americans.

In addition to the above when I speak with senior quality
professionals and members of other professional bodies (such as PMI) there are
some more factors that emerge.

ASQ has very limited presence in Asia – this is where the action
is

ASQ has very limited influence with large tech companies

ASQ hasn’t launched anything big in years. Can’t only depend
on an annual conference and certifications.

I have been involved with ASQ in India since 2006 and been a
member since early 2000s. I have worked with members and volunteers for ASQ for
over eight years. In this period I have seen good progress. Here are some key
pluses:

ASQ has opened up to the fact that it has be more global
(Self-awareness is step one of improvement)

The office in India is now established. It has had some hiccups
but seems settled now. The India office was a goal of the informal ASQ group –
QualityFirst

The local member community model – LMC is now established
and even tried globally. Bangalore was a pioneer here

More engagement opportunities with Webinar series (notable
Dr Manu Vora has helped a lot).

With this background, what do we think could be done to
engage more members and volunteers? Here is a wish list:

1. Membership fee linked to Purchasing Power Parity. Almost all
members feel ASQ fee are too high at current pricing for India. I have spoken
about this for over eight years an at the WCQ in May 2014 I asked Stephen Hacker
(Then Chair) and Cecilia
Kimerlin (Now Chair) about linking membership fee to PPP – purchasing power
parity. I believe we have to bite this bullet now. PMI has reduced second year
feel to 50% for select countries. If ASQ reduces fee to 1/4th I am
convinced their revenue will remain same with increased membership.

2. ASQ India Conference. ASQ has to make a reasonable splash in
India. The Indian Quality community is pretty large and no one is bringing it together.
If ASQ does not do so soon, someone else will. Several leading quality
professionals globally have Indian roots. They can easily help make the conference
a success.

3. More local events. An
assured method of more engagement with members in a city is to have regular
events. Two to four hour seminars every alternate month is ideal. Bangalore and
Ahmadabad has been doing these events regularly and has benefited from the
same.

4, More webinars. With most Indian cities having terrible
traffic issues, members find it difficult to travel to events. Webinars are
ideal for this. ASQ Delhi office and Dr Manu Vora have done a wonderful job in
last six months to collaborate on a webinar series. We are now working to have an
ASQ Fellow speaker series. More of this will help in improving engagement.

5. Recognition across ASQ awards, magazines etc. ASQ has surely
woken up to the need of recognizing its members globally and not just in
Americas. More of this is needed. Ideas include:

India specific project contest

India specific Quality Progress (or
an online version)

Invite and honor senior
professionals – this attracts potential members

Partner with reputed publications
and organizations

6.Encourage volunteers. Volunteers are the backbone for ASQ.
They give their personal time for little gain. ASQ must find ways to reward and
recognize this effort.

7. New products and services: ASQ has to reach out to the new
tech community. Blogs like Techcrunch are bigger than ASQ already. Some ideas
include:

Take MBNQA global

Have tech world division to attract
Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, and the Apps industry

Regional conferences

Much of the above may read like one man’s rant. I can
however, assure you that all the above is based on my discussions with quality
professionals over the last decade or so. ASQ has done many things right in the
last five years but much more is required for it to be truly global.

Sunday, August 17, 2014

We all love to feel important and usually have a heightened
sense of our importance in the larger scheme of things. We can see this all around – people thinking ‘they’
were the reason for the team’s success. We also see successful managers who
join a different setup but fail. This usually happens because much of the success
is that of the eco-system around the individual. Everything works in synch,
together. Just as the eco-system is important of success of individuals, it is also
important for the success of disciplines such as quality.

Bill Troy,
CEO of ASQ has asked an important question in his post
– How will the future of quality unfold?

In my view most progress is evolutionary if we see it in
context of some history. Also, important is to have a justified sense of
importance. How important is quality to the CEO? Very important is what we
would like to believe. But more important than Finance and Human Resources?
Maybe not. Finance and Human Resources
need direct attention from a CEO whereas quality departments have to be a bit
self-driven as well.

Now, I am not saying this to discourage you or to push you
to change your profession. I am only saying this for all of us to have a
clearer picture of where the ‘quality’ function usually belongs in a
company. The growth of quality will only
be revolutionary in companies where the CEO/Board think it is more important than
Quality. All others have to be happy with evolutionary progress. Evolutionary progress is not bad. No progress
can be bad. It just sounds less ‘sexy’ when compared to revolutionary progress.

Let’s look at quality as a function or profession. How many revolutionary
turns have there been in this journey?

Attention to detail during the artisan centric age

Development of procedures and inspection

Modern inspection and sampling methods

Statistical quality control during world wars

Deming and his PDCA principle

Japanese quality revolution

Juran’s improvement methods

General Electric and its Six Sigma focus

Re-discovery of Lean

Waiting for this one…

There haven’t been too many revolutionary improvements in
quality. Most of these revolutions happened. No one planned them. The real
service we can offer to our profession is to keep working on evolutionary
change. We have to keep doing the right thing,
be on the path, and keep the faith in quality.

Quality of quality professionals getting better (this one is
more hope than expectation)

Quality getting deeper in education and healthcare

Quality has a seat in the boardroom.

While I have the above expectations, my hope and prayer is
that quality remains ‘relevant’ to the management. It is ok if we don’t get a
revolution. Evolution is fine as long as we get good people to join the profession.

Friday, August 1, 2014

Vision and focus are key elements of success. We all know this, but few
are able to follow. It takes a lot to remain focused on what we agree to remain
focused on. In a recent post Bill Troy,
CEO of ASQ, wrote about the clarity of Volvo’s vision. You can read the full
post here.

Having worked with the Malcolm Baldrige performance excellence criteria
for over 15 years now I am a firm believer in the power of a clear vision. 100s
of Baldrige companies have shown that unless we start with a clear idea of
where we are going, getting there is impossible.

What is a vision? My Guru, Suresh
Lulla, taught me that Vision is of a Visionary. Vision is picture, a
snapshot, of the future. It should be
ambitious and have stretch. It is important to have a date to the vision – by when
do we want it to come true. For Volvo it’s Vision 2020.

I have been lucky to have worked in a few organizations where there was
clarity of vision and focus followed. Here are two of those stories for you:

650+ Baldrige scores for all
Units: While managing a large internal Baldrige deployment, the only goal of
the program was – all key business units to get a score of 650 plus in an
external assessment. All action plans resulted from this single minded
vision/goal. It took three years but the organization did not move off the
chosen goal. I tried mighty hard, aligned all actions to the goal, trained key
staff, launched initiatives to support the goal, managed assessments, and did
what it took to achieve the vision. What looked impossible when we started became
possible with Vision and Focus. Result – All units achieved the target 1 year
ahead of plan.

15% efficiency goal and nothing
else: In another company our leadership was aghast when the Head of
Operations challenged us saying a 15% improvement in efficiency is the least he
will settle for. We tried to debate first, then argued, but he did not budge.
He showed us the numbers and indicated it was possible. We then wanted to
continue the meeting to set goals for operations, quality, human resources,
finance, etc. Mike stalled any effort to do this and said the goal is only ONE
and clear. 15% improvement in efficiency. All our department goals have to
align to this. What is not aligned need not be done. Result – in 6 months we
had achieved 18% improvement.

Polio eradication in India: Another
very successful Vision and Focus story is that of Polio Eradication in India.
We have all grown up cursing our respective governments. This is even more
common and well deserved in developing countries. The Indian government urged
by a doctor who was dabbling in politics – Dr Harshvardhan (he is now the new
Union Health Minister) launched a massive Polio eradication program over 15
years ago. When launched Polio was considered impossible to eradicate. With
single minded focus and clever use of celebrities, developing domestic
vaccines, and a massive government staff India final is Polio free.
Here is more on the results.

While it is difficult to remain focused on a key goal and align
everything else to it, it is clear that there is no better path to success.

The
Wisconsin Forward Award is the state level framework of the Malcolm Baldrige
framework. I have had some experience using the Baldrige framework with
companies in India, Indonesia, Thailand, Egypt, Australia, and the USA and
confirm that it takes a lot to progress on the Excellence journey.

The
excellence journey is like running a marathon. The first mile hurts. Your
body aches and screams. This part is very physical. You have to overcome this
phase to get to the next. Most people quit here. Similarly, in an organizational
excellence journey the first phase is the most chaotic. People challenge what
you want to do. There is pain all around. You will try various methods and some will fail. But as a change agent and leader if
you patiently manage to overcome this phase, you will be on your way.

Once
you are through with the intense physical phase while running your body gets
into motion. It is warmed up and your feet and arms fall in sync. You breathe
comfortably and before you realize you are cruising. Pain reduces and you begin
to enjoy the view. The same happens in an organizational excellence journey. Your
detractors have either joined you or quit. There is not much pain. Your plans
are working and slowly but surely results are showing. You will find a winning method here. This is the phase where
your mental strength pulls you along.

A lot of people who overcome the physical part
manage to finish the mental part. But to kick into a higher gear you need
emotional strength. This is where your body doesn’t fail but your feelings
could fail you. You have doubts about
completing the run. Similarly in the organizational journey this is where the
struggle to accelerate begins. You know you can run the course but your mind is
failing. There are doubts from the few setbacks on the way.

If you are able to overcome the emotional churn during
the run you could find yourself on a spiritual last phase. You cruise in a
state of Zen. You are not too bothered about competition. The last few miles
seem no effort at all. This is what happens in the organizational excellence
journey as well. In this spiritual phase
you get the results you want. You are patient if you don’t get results that you
hoped. You are happy for others in the industry.

Let’s take the long distance running and organizational
excellence analogy a bit further. Just like you cant just get up one day and
run a marathon, you can’t just decide to be on the organizational journey all
of a sudden. If you have to run you have to make sure you prepare yourself with
small daily drills, warm-ups, getting fitter, and motivating yourself. You will
do the same in an organizational excellence journey – get fitter using Kaizen,
reward mechanisms to motivate people, communicate to clarify your goals,
involve all around then. Then you start practicing.

Remember, like in running, you can’t just run long
distance on motivation. You got to be in shape as well.

At Infosys, while I was heading the Baldrige
implementation across the company there were some who did not buy in. But
others did. I focused on those who bought in. While consulting with the Aditya
Birla group I was able to use a steady deployment approach over two-three years
to help four companies win the Deming Application Prize. All these companies
gained financially as well.

In my experience in implementing Baldrige framework I
realized that patience and persistence are just as important as knowledge and
motivation.

Friday, May 16, 2014

Earlier this month I attended the ASQ World
Conference on Quality Improvement (WCQI) in Dallas, Texas, USA. While my
primary purpose to visit was to receive in person my Fellow status, it was a
delight to stay on at the conference. I am certain I am not alone in feeling
this way.

Many of you have helped me on my journey to become a
Fellow of the ASQ and continue to help. My most sincere thanks for your help.
This post is dedicated to those amongst you who could not visit the conference.
Here is my summary of the conference.

Award ceremonies and exhibition
opening

For a pre-conference inauguration kind of day this was a
packed to the rim day. The day started with opening of the exhibition area.
The exhibition area was something I had not imagined at this scale. In
many ways all of us can imagine a speaker session. A large hall, with a
glittering dais, huge seating etc. But, to imagine an exhibition center as big
as a football ground, I wasn’t ready for that.

It was a delight to see so many companies setting up
booths/stalls to promote their goods and services. The ones I loved were:

The Quality Council of Indiana stall was probably the
highlight. It was also a highlight because I know the founder of QCI, Bill
Wortman fairly well and he was very welcoming. The entire range of study
material for ASQ exams was on display. The booth also attracted attention with
some glamour quotient!www.qualitycouncil.com

QI Macros by Jay Arthur – those of you who are looking for
an Excel Alternative for Mintab/JMP, please check this out. Excellent add-on
for MS Excel. Can do almost any analysis that other software over 5 times the
price do. At $200 or so I think QI Marcos is a fantastic product.

Gemba Academy by Ron Perriera – While the academy offers
training in the US, I was particularly interested in the online training they
offer. For $ 2000 you can do an online LSS BB. The modules I checked were very
well prepared. There are coaching sessions packed in as well. Good alternative,
if you want to study at your pace or don’t have access to good training in your
area.

Other booths of interest were Minitab, JMP, ASQ Center,
and Quality Management Division.

The Fellows Lunch was a grand affair. All past fellows are
invited and a lot of them came. The 24 new Fellows felt much honored in the
presence of luminaries. Announcements were made by ASQ Past Chair John
Timmerman. The Fellow lapel Pin being given away by current Chair, Stephen
Hacker. This was a truly memorable moment for both Hemant Urdhwareshe and me as
the two Fellows from India this year. During the networking session that
followed I met a lot of quality celebs and found them all very warm and
welcoming.

Keynote Addresses

The opening and closing talks of the conferences were the
highlights for me. Erik Wahl – a very popular artist, author, speaker, and
philanthropist took stage as the opening keynote. He delivered an engaging talk
on remaining creative and embellished the talk with making three paintings
right there on the stage– Bono, Einstein, Steve Jobs. The highlight of the talk
was how he demonstrated to the over 2000 + people present that fear is real but
mostly unfounded. And if you took some risk there are big rewards. I loved the
talk and bought his book and stood in a mile long queue to get it autographed.

The closing keynote was delivered by Michelle Rhee.
Michelle’s claim to fame is turning around the public school system in
Washington. She delivered with amazing passion, sincerity, and timely wit.
Battling all odds she reformed a broken system and during her time as
Chancellor of Washington Public School System has delivered excellent results
for students in grades 8 to 10. She has written a book (title Radical) around
this and I urge you all to read it for an amazing story of how impossible can
be made possible.

Commander Mike Abrashoff of the US Navy spoke about his
experience of leading a ship. His ship became the best ‘damn’ ship in the US
Navy in his tenure.

There were two more keynotes. Bob Pence, CEO of
Freese and Nichols Inc, an engineering company based in Texas and an MBNQA
winner, spoke about how to lead a MBNQA winning effort. I was delighted to see
MBNQA flourish. Alicia Davis of General Motors spoke about how the auto maker
has benefited from merging the Quality and Customer Experience functions. This
was one keynote which clearly wasn’t key note class. Alica read through her
talk with no eye contact with the audience. She was good in the Q&A
sessions.

Other interesting sessions

The WCQI is built around concurrent sessions and team
presentations. As a result one has to plan in advance about which sessions to
attend. Amongst the ones I attended here are the interesting ones:

§ Culture and Quality
research by Corporate Executive Board

§ Using DOE in financial services call
centers

§ Hoshin Kanri by Beth Cudney
(Beth became a Fellow this year)

§ Networking by Erick Hayler (Fellow)

§ Using Quality Tools in career
planning

The International Team Excellence competition
finals were also held during the conference. India’s Max Life Insurance won a
Bronze which is very commendable. The competition was fierce but a lot of fun
as well.

A key trend that I picked up this year was the renewed
interest in MBNQA (Baldrige) and focus on Hoshin Kanri.

Personal Highlight

My personal highlight of the event was the 10 mins I spent
with Robert Camp (Father of Benchmarking). Dr Camp is Chairman of the
Global Benchmarking Council. My mentor/guru Suresh Lulla is also on this
council. Dr Camp was very warm and eager to discuss even in the short time we
had. He invited me to get photographed with him and his family as well. Made me
feel special!

One regret – could not meet Prof Kano. He was at the
conference but I couldn’t meet him.

The NRI contingent was in strong numbers. Some key members
were Govind Ramu, Navin Dedhia, Pradip Mehta, Dilip Shah, and Kush Shah.

Truly World Class

Attending the WCQI this year has permanently altered my
idea about ‘world-class’. I remain amazed at how a bunch of staff and
volunteers could deliver such an amazing event. The size, quality, diversity,
professionalism, detail-orientation, everything about the event was
‘world-class’. I will try and improve our ASQ Bangalore events based on this
experience.

The other shift in my mindset is around setting higher
goals. While becoming a Fellow is indeed special, it was at the WCQI that I
realized that so much more is to be done. I met other Fellows and Award Winners
and returned impressed by what they have done and are doing. I have set my bar
higher now and found new motivation.

Sunday, May 11, 2014

It’s the big
election time in India. I have studiously avoided commenting on it lest I
should lose some friends. However, I recently posted a status on my social
accounts:

I did a count on 'Quality' in manifestos of
Indian National Congress and the Bhartiya Janata Party. Who won? Congress 29
and BJP 26. But BJP got it right on where and what to do with quality. Well
done.

I got a lot of questions on what should these political
parties have written in their election manifestos. I don’t really know what
they should write but I do have a view on what can be done.

I have summarized my views in the form of a National Quality Mission. I would like
to see the new government establish a national mission to re-focus on quality.
India has a great heritage in quality work. Taj Mahal, Qutub Minar, Textiles, Astronomy,
Architecture, you name it. Over last few centuries we have lost this leadership
in quality. While I know it will take a long time to get that reputation back,
a beginning has to be made.

National
Quality Mission

India needs nothing
less than a National Quality Mission to find its way back to the top. Of course
other things are required as well. What is a National Quality Mission? It is an
apex body that encourages, guides, supports, monitors, hand-holds, and penalizes
Indian organizations on the path of world-class quality.

Who should run
this? Not the government for sure. The government does not have the officers
with the vision, skill, desire, and persistence to make something like this.
Government could and maybe should fund the mission for sure.

The mission could
have the following focus areas to work with other ministries and organizations
to make change happen.

Quality
of Education

To me this is the
biggest issue for India. This is make or break. The Indian education system is
broken with a very wide variation in Quality. The areas to fix are Higher Education
for immediate impact and Primary Education for longer term impact.

In primary
education basic standards are not yet set unpublicized. Principals and Teachers
must be made accountable if they want that salary at the end of the month. I
would institute an exam for all current teachers. It could be the same exams they
give the students each year. If they don’t score in top 10 percentile then they
have to make way for others more deserving.

Higher education in
India is over commercialized and low on ambition. Too many people have got into
higher education for it to offer any quality. A policy shift to encourage
vocational education could help divert students who know they won’t make it as
an MBA to go and still do an MBA. Why not become a world-class carpenter,
plumber, or electrician?

In higher education,
contrary to what most say, I believe less institutes with better quality is
what we need. A fewer but bigger university with more vocational options is
what we will need.

Quality
of Manufacturing

This could be
easier than education but just as important. Way too much inferior product is
being produced and sold. The Bureau of Indian Standards (ISI mark) needs a
major revamp with some powers to penalize defaulters. We should be able to
counter fakes of global brands to encourage Indian brands to prosper.

A national quality
improvement initiative using Six Sigma and Lean principles will help immensely.
Companies consistently demonstrating high quality should get tax exemptions or
other benefits from the government. In India no incentive works better than an
exemption – one reason less to deal with the government.

A national quality education
drive using volunteers from industry is now a must. It is only when people know
why, what, and how of improvement can we expect them to improve. A national
improvement project repository could be an ambitious project. Each project
completed could get a cash incentive from the government. All projects would be
available online and any reader could benefit from some research.

Quality
of Services

This could be the
most controversial intervention. The services industry by nature is very
fragmented with a wide variety of services available for consumers. A national quality rating system for key
service sectors could be something to consider. A J D Power kind rating for
Banks, Telecom, and Utility companies to start with will kick start quality in
these sectors.

A robust education drive
across the industry will also be required. While a lot of colored belts are
floating around most of these belts are worn by quality professionals. This has
limited value and reach. The quality profession will gain by taking quality education
to other departments.

Quality
of Healthcare

Quality in
Healthcare could have the maximum shorter term impact in saving lives. For a
country that produces some of world’s best doctors and has several hospitals in
global best lists we have a poor secondary infection rate. A lot of people
leave the hospital with an infection they did not come to get treated.

Access to quality
healthcare at affordable prices is going to the key issue. While Sankara Nethralaya
(eye hospital) and Narayana (Devi
Shetty fame) have shown that it’s possible to make money and still treat at
lower prices, affordability is still an issue. Healthcare for rural women (or
lower income) is something the government has to urgently own up. An unhealthy
woman will deliver a malnourished child. And we can’t afford this going
further.

Like other sectors
it is very difficult to complain against medical negligence. This has to be
made easier. Again, I would think that too many people who are not fit to be
doctors become doctors. Why not restrict the number of doctors or have a
national doctor rating system? A rating system could be based on customer
feedback, peer reviews, and third party reviews. Doctors could carry these
ratings across the hospitals they serve for.

Quality
of Agriculture

This is the area I am
least qualified to speak about. But I do strongly feel that Indian agriculture productivity
is low. Years ago I attended a seminar where Kanwal Rekhi (Serial
Investor) spoke about some interesting insights into India. The insight that
stuck with me is that about 66% of India is connected to agriculture. This is
actually shameful. He went on to imply that 66% means each person is only
producing for himself and ½ of another person. That surely won’t lead us to a
better tomorrow.

With people like M S Swaminathan still
around we don’t have to look for advice on what to do. This is a sector that
can pay for itself as each crop is sold. Unlike Healthcare and Education the
returns in Agriculture will be faster and investment could be much lesser.

Some common themes
that emerge in this post are:

Complaint
management is
the bedrock of improvement in quality. The NQM could have a single window for
all complaints against erring companies. Any customer who feels that the
quality he or she received was not of the stated standard could complain. The NQM
could either resolve the query itself or refer cases to industry bodies. Cost of
investigation could come from a fund or a small fee could be collected from
complainants.

National
quality education program – we
will need to take quality orientation to schools and colleges and then to
industry. We have to help people believe that quality is not going to happen by
wishing for it. It is going to happen by all of us doing something about it and
to have no tolerance for poor quality.

National
quality Award -
one process which is world class. For a nation that is not known for its quality
we have too many awards. We need lesser awards to improve our sense of
achievement. There are some awards floating around where you only have to
register and you will win something. They will create a category for you. This
has to be stopped.

National
improvement project register.
This could be the most difficult to accomplish. As a nation we don’t share very
well. But there won’t be much progress without sharing. A national improvement
project register will also help us discover and award worthy companies rather
than only those who apply for awards.

Financial
incentives for high quality exports.
As I said earlier nothing works better in India than financial rewards. Give exemptions
to companies that improve quality and reach world-class levels. Indian
companies are very creative in finding ways to avoid paying tax (legally) or
pay less tax. I am sure they will find ways to improve quality if there is some
direct money dangling.

A
Request

I know this post is
more like a rambling of sorts. A long list of ideas. And I am sure you have more
ideas than what are listed here. I am hoping and praying that someone in the
next government reads this post. If you are in a position to push this to
people in power, please do your bit.